House Sitting

Aquadilla Puerto Rico



I am house sitting this week for Bill and Kelly. Here they are getting ready to launch into the surf for a secession. Not sure who the photographer is but it is a nice shot of the two and wilderness beach.

I spent some time at Bill and Kelly's house when I first arrived in PR. Quite the adventurous pair. Bill is the only Coast Guard Dental Officer on the island and is responsible for the quality of the active forces grin. Kelly is a pharmacist and they both met years ago while they worked on a Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona. The twosome are off to the states for weddings, camping, rock climbing and pretty much doing the Moab thing. So I jumped at the chance when they asked if I'd watch their two aging dogs, Small Pups and Wiley.

Just as a quick aside, it really is not abnormal for cruising sailors to end up house sitting. In fact Doug and Cheryl from SV Prudence have been doing just that on Culebra and also our goods friends on Snark, Kim and Dan did the same thing in St. Croix. The danger really is that it is the first step in growing roots. Let your heart not be troubled, Christa and company will be sailing east toward the end of next month. Besides we have a date with Janina in the Virgin Islands in mid December.

So anyway as I indicated in my blog posts last March/April the west coast of Puerto Rico is a whole different universe compared to Salinas. First off the house that Kelly and Bill have bought and improved upon is really cool. I have a love for small cottage type homes. But here is some quick history. Here in Aquadilla is Coast Guard Airstation Borinquen and Bill being a Coast Guard Officer is attached to the Air Station. But the whole area is dominated by what used to be Ramey Air Force Base. The CG Air Station is in but one hanger on the former air base. A commercial airport is also on the base being served by Jet Blue and some other carriers. The base was opened in 1936 by the Army Air Corp and evolved into a Strategic Bomber Base during the Big One and post WW11. Mostly B-52's and Aerial Re-fueling aircraft. The base was closed up in 1973 as per a reduction in force program during the Vietnam era. Two years prior the Coast Guard had moved its island aviation program to Ramey. Once Ramey went away, Borinquen was born. So the left over infrastructure is substantial. Hundreds of small concrete homes were built creating old school neighborhoods. One neighborhood is fenced and is the Coast Guard housing area with the movie theater and exchange. Most of the other Air Force homes were put out on the market and were bought up by locals. The homes for the most part are well maintained. The place does not look like a dump. Bill and Kelly bought one of these homes which flanks the CG housing area and is perched near the cliff with sweeping views of the Caribbean Sea. Their home is really cool, painted in the desert SW motif. Key for me is that it is off the grid. They have a solar array and also a solar hot water system. Very cool indeed.

What I would like to stress is the area is world famous for its great surf breaks and surf culture. Aquadilla faces west looking toward the Mona Passage and Dominican Republic. The beaches are lined with coconut palms, beautiful sand and clear water. Most of the year, when the east trades blow the west coast is sheltered. So I will enjoy my week or so living on terra firma.

Weather. I barely made it out of Salinas two days ago with the flooding. I had to drive to San Juan and then head along the north coast to get to Aquadilla, a bit out of the way to say the least. It poured with squalls all day yesterday. I spoke with the troops back in Salinas and learned of a line of squalls that racked through the anchorage after I had left. 50 knots for 30 minutes. Aye chiwawa. Christa is such a good boat, she rode out the storm and didn't budge. So I have been worried about the anchor moving, now I'm worried it's set so well I won't be able to raise her when the time comes! Anyway for the time being the scope is clear to my east and southeast. Sorry so long winded on this post.

Capt Chris

The Outcome of Invest 93, Puerto Rico

Below is a blurb I pulled off one of the weather sites I blanket.

"Tropical disturbance 93L continues to dump torrential rains of up to four inches per hour on Puerto Rico. Storm total rainfall amounts have exceeded 20 to 30 inches in parts of southeast Puerto Rico where rivers are up to 14 feet above flood stage. Flash floods and mudslides have been reported across the east, southeast, and southeastern interior Puerto Rico. An additional 10-20 inches of rain is expected over western and southwestern Puerto Rico today, due to the very slow motion of 93L. The rains from 93L are the most that have fallen on the island since Hurricane Georges ten years ago (see below)."

That pretty much sums up the current state of affairs aboard Christa. I was supposed to drive to the west coast today, but the Playa where I am is flooded and not passable. Maybe tomorrow?

Capt Chris

Autumnal Equinox

Salinas Puerto Rico

September 22nd is known as the Vernal or Autumnal Equinox. This is the point at which the length of day and night are nearly the same. The sun is now passing its celestial equator on its march south. This spells the onset of winter as the suns rays do not strike the northern hemisphere at such a direct angle. In Short Autum is here!

Capt Chris

Tropical Weather

I should be freakin out. A tropical depression is forming this morning 70 miles to the south of Salinas. A Tropical depression as we all know is the pre-cursor to a hurricane. The satellite photo certainly looks very ominous. However according to the experts the circulation that is apparent in the photo is in mid levels of the atmosphere thus far. As a system becomes more organized the atmospheric turning works its way to the surface. All things being equal, that is the point when wind velocity starts to increase. Also when circulation makes it to the surface and is deemed "closed" it is then upgraded from an "invest" to a tropical depression. Next stage would be a named tropical storm. Things need to monitored closely as TS Fay skipped the depression stage and went to a tropical storm just about instantly.

So the sweat factor is minimal as the system has some hostile environmental factors to overcome plus most of the weather models predict development north of Puerto Rico. However folks on the east coast need to watch out. This is the time of year when tropical systems can interact with low pressure system coming across Canada. The soup that breed the Perfect Storm in October 91.

So right now Puerto Rico is under serious rain and thunderstorm assault. Although it seems more rain than anything. So far we don't expect any thunderstorms to the severity of Hanna or Ike.

In other news, I'm supposed to head to the west coast town of Aguadilla to house sit for Kelley and Bill while they do some skulking. So hopefully I can spend the next week and a half living in a house, surfing and running with there two dogs down the beach. Then again, the weather could turn and I could end up swatting mosquitos while lashed into the mangroves. So many unknowables and everyone thinks cruising is so sexy.

Capt Chris

Weathered Obsessed....Can't Help It!

If you look closely at this graphic you will see that the center of this low pressure system is just to my west by about 20 miles. Crazy. Just a couple of days ago this low pressure system was heading in a westerly direction. Since then it just turned to the north and west and finally this morning due north. Since this morning the National Hurricane Center gave this a 50 50 chance of developing into a larger system. Also the forecasters have been unable to find the exact position of the low which is pretty important as the amount of vigor that a sailor may encounter depends on the relative position to the low. So since the sat photos looked scary the hurricane folk sent out a hurricane hunter.

So being hurricane obsessed I learned today where the website is to track the data in real time as it is transmitted from the aircraft back to HQ. So I did and first thing I read is 48 knots......tropical storm......then 68 knots at the surface. Holy toledo I thought the storm had exploded which is really not rare and of course its proximity makes it stupid to try and head for the mangroves. I did notice some abnormalities in how the data was being posted. Pretty much it looks like a spreadsheet and not all the data in the surface wind windows were being added. Some were skipped. Well the instrument was screwed up! Not to long after the hurricane center updated the storm data derived from the aircraft. So the low center was moved nearly 60 miles north placing nearly ontop of me. Good news! Surface winds are 30 to 35 mph. Can do. So it appears another bullet has been dodged by team Christa. I hate the stress of it all. So current conditions in the anchorage is 15 to 25 knots from the SSW with numerous squalls and tons of rain. As Tom Larson would say, I've got storm madness I've had it before. I think I'll give blogging a rest for today.

Capt Chris